In 1882-4, Frances Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland described Shin like this:
Shin, Loch, a lake in Lairg parish, Sutherland. Lying 270 feet above sea-level, it extends 161/8 miles south-eastward to Lairg village, and varies in breadth between ¼ and 1½ mile. The trout are fine, and salmo-ferox are numerous. ...
Loch Shin possesses strictly a Highland character, but wants the magnificence of mountainflank, the wealth of forest, and the adornment of park and islet, which distinguish many of the Highland lochs. Its south-eastern extremity, indeed, is overhung by a fine sweep of wood, and washes a slope beautifully studded with the neat cottages, the humble church, and the peaceful manse of the village of Lairg; and its W end is so sublimely encircled by the stupendous mountain-masses which are grouped with Benmore-Assynt as to need only wood and a little culture to produce a picturesque blending of grandeur and beauty; but its middle and greatly chief extent was described by Dr Macculloch as ` little better than a huge ditch without bays, without promontories, without rocks, without trees, without houses, without cultivation, as if Nature and man had equally despised and forgotten it.' Hugh Miller spent three autumn holidays at his aunt's cottage in the ancient Barony of Gruids on the shore of Loch Shin; and chapters v. and vi. of My Schools and Schoolmasters are largely devoted to those happy days of his boyhood.—Ord. Sur., shs. 108, 102, 1880-81.
Additional information about this locality is available for Lairg
Shin through time
Shin is now part of Highland district. Click here for graphs and data of how Highland has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Shin itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Shin, in Highland and Sutherland | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/26889
Date accessed: 24th April 2024
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